The present invention relates generally to a basket carrier of the wrap around neck through the top type with a handle that can be positioned entirely below the top of the bottles when loaded and extended above the bottle tops for carrying by the consumer. When the handle is in the down or retracted position, the carriers loaded with bottles can be stacked one upon the other. When the carrier with loaded bottles is removed from the store shelf, the consumer can pull the handle up above the top of the bottles in order to carry the carrier.
Basket carriers for carrying a plurality of bottles are well known in the art. Many of these carriers have a handle that extends above the top of the bottles being carried. This is a fine arrangement as far as the carrying of the bottles, but it does not permit the basket carriers loaded with bottles to be stacked one on top of another. Many bottle carriers have handles that do not extend above the tops of the bottles and, hence can be easily stacked one on top of another. However, the carriers where the aperture for the person""s hand in the handle is below the top of the bottles are not easy to carry. A person""s carrying hand frequently rubs against the caps of the bottles and may be scratched to the consumer""s annoyance.
There are basket carriers that have fold down handles that can be stacked when loaded with bottles one on top of another, but these handle structures tend to be complicated and are not easily manipulated by the consumer. Furthermore, these handle structures use extra paperboard and hence are not too economical. It would be desirable to have a basket style carrier with a handle that can be easily placed below the top of the bottles in a retracted position when loaded with bottles and be easily extended by the consumer when removed from the shelf.
It is the object of this invention to develop a basket style carrier of the wrap around neck through the top type for bottles that can be easily stacked which necessitates that the handle not extend above the top of the bottles when loaded. It is a further object to develop a basket style carrier in which the consumer can extend the handle above the top of the bottles for easy carrying. These objects have been obtained with a wrap around carrier with a neck through the top opening for necks of bottles which is constructed so as to have a flexible handle that can be pushed into a retracted position for the stacking of carriers one of top of the another and can be easily pulled into the extended carrying position by the consumer. This object is achieved by having at least two (2) score lines in the paperboard between the aperture for the hand and the aperture for the bottle neck with the score line nearest the hand aperture being approximately midway between the apertures for the bottle neck and the aperture for the hand and then being other score line being adjacent to the apertures for the bottle necks. The use of two (2) score lines in these approximate positions facilitates flexing the handle into the retracted position. In addition, the bottle neck apertures can be made elliptical and slightly larger than the bottle necks to permit the slight movement of the bottles necessary during the retraction of the handle. The handle may be held in the retracted position by the bottles in each row acting like a wedge to hold the handle in the retracted position.
The carriers of this invention are formed from a single blank of paperboard and are folded and glued together to form collapsed carrier. This carrier can be formed from a single rectangular blank of paperboard of a thin caliber, which increases efficiency and reduces waste.
When the wrap around carrier of this invention is filled with bottles on the packaging machine, the handle is pushed into the retracted position, which facilitates stacking the carriers on top of each other. The handle can be readily extended for carrying by the consumer.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading the following specification in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and figures.